A Roll-on Roll-off or a ferry boat.
Those ships are used mostly in short journeys to cross the Channel or the Mediterranean Sea for instance.
They enable lorries to link two shores without wasting too much time in handling and storage.
Indeed, the lorries roll onto the boat where they are parked, the Ro-Ro crosses the sea; and then lorries roll off to reach their final destination.
There is no breakbulk (the goods stay in the lorry, there is no loading or unloading at the port).
VOCABULARY
Roll-on Roll-off: un roulier
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A container ship.
Nowadays more and more goods are carried in large containers all over the world.
Containers are steel boxes of different sizes (usually 8 by 8 by 20 or 40 feet - 2.4 by 2.4 by 5.9 or 12 metres). The advantages are:
Handling at docks is made by machines; and ship's holds can receive containers.
Very few stevedores are needed. A container ship takes 12 to 15 men, three to four days to load and unload (instead of a hundred men and 12 to 15 days of loading and unloading).
Goods can be received more quickly.
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